Move over, Chicago Police Union members. Your brothers in blue just got handed their orders to get the Covid jab or walk. But while Chicago police are still fighting the good fight, a New York State judge just put the kibosh on a lawsuit the Police Benevolent Association filed on Monday.

The lawsuit challenges the city’s new vaccine mandate, which requires all municipal workers to get at least one jab by Friday at 5 p.m. If they don’t get it, they face unpaid leave. However, Judge Lizette Colon of Richmond County Supreme Court rejected the PBA’s argument. Instead the judge sided with Mayor Bill de Blasio, who now sallies forth with one of the most strict mandates in the nation.

Never mind that de Blasio’s social justice warrior schtick has been turning his city into crap. He’s willing to further risk the safety of his citizens by forcing this mandate.

Previously, police could opt for weekly Covid tests instead of the jab. But no more. The option is no longer acceptable to city authorities, even though the police union said this policy was working just fine. But now de Blasio’s vaccine order rules.

NYC’s Law Department is doing a happy dance over Judge Colon’s ruling:

“We’re pleased with this ruling, and remain confident this mandate is on solid legal ground. The city’s vaccine mandates make our workplaces safer, further public health and aid the city’s recovery.”

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea pleaded yet again for his cops to get their vaccines. He warned in a video:

“On Monday, when this thing starts being enforced, and if you’re not vaccinated, no pay and you won’t be able to work. I don’t think anyone wants that to happen … We need you out there. Please take advantage of the next few days and get vaccinated.”

But Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, threw down the gauntlet, saying in a statement:

“The PBA will continue to fight the fight and will immediately appeal this ruling, but New Yorkers should know who to blame for any shortfall in city services: Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Shea and the other bureaucrats who are putting politics before public health and public safety.”

“Today’s ruling sets the city up for a real crisis. The haphazard rollout of this mandate has created chaos in the NYPD.”

NYC doesn’t only risk losing police officers over the shot, but other city workers as well. The city has 300,000 municipal workers, and most of them have received Covid vaccines. However, as of last week, about 46,000 have not. As for other “essential workers,” (remember that?), such as emergency medical workers, fire, police, and sanitation, about one quarter remain unvaccinated.

And now the New York Fire Department plans to protest to vaccine mandates as well. In fact, they plan to take their anger straight to Gracie Mansion, where de Blasio lives.

Should NY city workers take the vaccines? Yeah, it’s probably a good idea for most. At this point, Covid has taken the lives of 63 NYPD officers, for example, and the virus has been the leading cause of police deaths throughout the nation.

But tyrannical mayors like Bill de Blasio or Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot should not force city workers to inject chemicals into their arms. Remember Newton’s Third Law of Motion?

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

That is exactly what de Blasio will get from resistant police, firefighters, and other workers: a vigorous opposite reaction.

Emily Burns, a contributor at the Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research, compares vaccine mandates to Prohibition of the 1920’s. Like the mandates, Prohibition was designed to bring about social benefit. The “science” also supported it. And, authorities believed that coercion would be useful in reducing related social problems, like crime, poverty, and domestic violence.

Giphy.com. 

Forcing people to stop consuming alcohol worked really well, didn’t it?

But Burns notes that at least Prohibitionists anticipated consequences for their actions. They knew that in the event the government prohibited the sale of alcohol, it would no longer be able to collect excise tax. So they pushed for a federal income tax to make up for the shortfall. In 1913, 36 states ratified the 16th Amendment, right before Prohibition. (So you can thank militant teetotalers for the IRS.)

However, people like de Blasio and Judge Colon don’t seem to have considered any consequences. Burns writes:

“What are the costs of firing doctors and nurses as we go into another COVID season, of firing police officers when the murder rate is increasing at the fastest rate in our history?”

What are the costs, indeed? Bill De Blasio may force vaccine mandates on his police and firefighters (remember, the heroes of 9/11?), but he may have opened a Pandora’s box of more chaos to come in New York City.

Welcome, Instapundit readers! 

Featured image: David Hilowitz/flickr/cropped/CC BY 2.0.